Authentic Southern Sweet Potato Pie vs Chelsea Buns

Sweet potato pie and Chelsea buns both rely on sugar, milk, butter and egg, yet they put them to very different work. In the pie, these ingredients bind with mashed sweet potato into a smooth, custardy filling, perfumed with nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla and baked in a crisp, flaky crust. In the buns, the same staples enrich a soft yeasted dough rolled around currants and warm spice, then baked into sticky, glossy spirals. One is silky and spoon-tender; the other is pillowy, chewy and fruit-studded, made for tearing apart by hand.